This blog is affiliated with a course at the School of Journalism & Electronic Media at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. I'll try to use it to share relevant news and information with the class, and anyone else who's interested.

Thursday, May 31, 2012

TV Everywhere - Is It Going Anywhere?

Roughly one-third of all broadband households in the U.S. watch online video content on a TV set, and one in four watch online video content on mobile devices. That makes it one of the fastest roll-outs in TV services history, according to Brent Sappington in a column on the Fierce Online Video blog. Pay-TV penetration exceeds 80% of US homes, with broadband penetration rapidly closing the penetration gap. This makes for a highly competitive TV market (cable has 58%, satellites 33%, and telco providers approaching 10%), even before considering the growing amount of online video services and content.
When you consider the rapid diffusion and impact of mobile devices on TV viewing habits, and the fact that about one in five Pay-TV subscribers have expressed an interest in dropping some or all of their pay-TV subscriptions, it seems like all TV market players will face a shifting market structure in the future. Many are trying to address change by exploring how they can maximize audiences by maximizing the opportunity for audiences to find and consume their content - the basic idea of TV Everywhere.
However, Sappington reports, provision and utilization of full TV Everywhere is being hampered by copyright and licensing issues, and limited consumer awareness. It's not likely that consumer awareness and evaluation of TV Everywhere options can start to grow until the licensing and access issues are resolved and the full range of content and channels become fully available.